Re: Hmmmm

I know nothing of coding

Allow me to pick upon the only other thing I can on this article - the video. Did he apply some sort of dark filter to the camera? Was the lens covered in mud? Was the camera powered by a ZX81? How can anyone use that as footage? It isn't that hard to record something from a screen using a camera / phone camera.

I applaud the coding part though. I have never been able to learn anything sadly. I get frustrated too easily when a guide is slightly different to what is in front of me due to versions of program meaning things have moved around etc. Given the amount of time I sit in front of a computer though I know I should be able to learn something useful. If anybody has a seriously good starting point website I would appreciate links!

Didn't learn from HTC

HTC were the kings of Android early in the cycle and had a massive period of growth. Then they started thinking they could do no wrong and pumped out new phones so frequently that there were phones competing with their own kin. I checked back and one year they released something like 23 phones! Samsung started doing the same and also seemed to have the same update policy where you might get one update to bring a device up to the current version which it should have had already but after that you're out of luck.

In the case of HTC they're still trying to recover and the One M7 and M8 have done a lot to win praise but not the sort of customers they'd like. Hopefully if they continue with the series or a new flagship model they will do well again. Samsung, if they want to do better again will have to cut down on the models released and try to make something that isn't plastic for a change. If HTC can manage it then surely Samsung can with all their massive resources.

Disclaimer madness!

"both manufacturers were keen to stress that the results you get from their devices shouldn't be used to test whether you're safe to drive."

Oh right. These devices, that have only one purpose for existing, shouldn't be used to judge what they were made for ok? I know they can't replace equipment that costs thousands but come on. Isn't that like having a coffee cup with "hot beverage" marked on it? Oh.. America... gotcha

Anyone shedding a tear? No?

After abusing their powers for years they lose their easy catch-all abilities and have nobody but themselves to blame. I was wondering how long it would take them to throw out the two trump cards of terrorism and paedophiles and the answer is not too long. They'll have to go back to the older ways of spying now that involves more work than grabbing all communications sent over X network on Y days and hoping for something to stand out.

Question for those able to answer

I have a web hosting plan with a provider that are based in Germany. I don't remember how I ended up with these in particular but that isn't the point. I use them for very basic things like a website (that I never update), email and file hosting for myself and a few friends. Every time I've paid for this it is done so with a 12 month payment up front and I paid this in September or October.

They recently sent me an email detailing the change mentioned in this article about VAT now being charged according to the customer's country meaning it'd be 20% instead of 19%. As I've paid a year in advance are they entitled to try and claim more money from me? I'm assuming not as this change has been coming for a while and they made no mention of it when I renewed the plan and the first I heard of it was the email about the change. I don't know for certain that they intend to try and ask for more money but it wouldn't surprise me.

No thanks!

As a customer of Virgin Media with mostly positive experiences I can say a big "NO" to Vodafail as a former customer with all negative experiences. Naturally I have no say in this because money talks louder than customers even if it's the customers that make you the money. They can happily go fuck themselves. Expensive, poor service, disinterested sales reps in stores the times I had to visit one for a phone repair. If you're not on a £££ contract then you're not worth their time and aren't worth their attention. I do not want to experience their idea of service ever again.

Best reason to diet yet

" subjects in the former, heftier band actually lived longer than the lightweights."

I don't want to be at the stage in life where I'm essentially an old baby needing people to wipe my bum, feed me and put me to bed. This could be the reason to finally start losing the excess weight I've been carrying around.

Re: disguised as a system update...

Damn. You beat me to it! I suspect a large amount of people would never see a system update so the likelihood of being affected by this is probably quite low. If you download apps from a third-party site you're taking a risk unless you're positive it's a genuine app.

Just as Windows has numerous virus issues and exploits I've only run into them when I've gone to darker pastures for software.

Pointless?

Is there a point of having a Robot Baseball team? If the pitcher can throw the ball anywhere it wants but the batter can hit it anywhere in the strike zone and aim it anywhere it wants is there even a point to having a fielder? Nobody will be struck out and the 1st innings will never end as it will be permanent home run things.

tl;dr If the robots are so good will the game ever end?

Last thought - can the robots spit like 'pros' do? That's where the real skill is apparently.

Replaceable batteries for all!

Genuinely curious to know. How many people actually replace the battery or carry a spare? By the time the unremovable battery starts to suffer I would hazard a guess that most people will be replacing it. If you really need extra juice while you're out and about then you can get plenty of battery bars. It isn't ideal but when I can get one that gives me 2 full charges of a 3000mAh battery and is the size of an bulky (2000 era) Nokia I'll opt for the latter.

Removable storage is a personal preference. I don't use enough space to care about it and 16GB is usually enough for me with 32GB phones being a luxury. The biggest disappointment to me here is the price. The Nexus 5 in the UK launched at £299 for the 16GB version but the Nexus 6 32GB version is launching at £499. The vanilla Android and fast updates to new versions is appealing but it isn't worth an extra £200. I feel as if the Nexus 5 was almost perfect but needed at least a 3000mAh battery and a good camera. It's a shame as I really like the look of the Nexus 6 but if I'm going to spend that much on a phone I'd go for the HTC One M8.

Didn't everyone already know?

I must admit to being totally lost here. I thought it was already common knowledge and as the article mentions he hasn't hidden it so why the sudden barrage of hate? I would very much like if everyone had the same thought as me when I read / heard he was gay - so what?

Samsung following HTC

I see that Samsung have adopted the old HTC attitude when they were top of the Android pile by flooding the market with low-end crap to try and get more sales. All that it will do is dilute sales even further and lead to more failed low-end crap being pushed out at a faster pace. I'm fine with this because I'm tired of Samsung and their lack of design flair but it is surprising that they don't see it.

Re: Dear HTC

I have a feeling this is an attempt to get the best price for new launches without the foresight to see that it will just limit sales. A timed exclusive is understandable and makes some sense but full exclusives annoy me a lot. I'd love to get the One M8 in red but it's only available on O2 in the UK.

Anyone in the UK will know why this is a bad thing and is made worse by the fact that it's also only available via O2. You can't go through Carphone Warehouse or anyone else to try and escape the stupid upfront costs and a better tariff for the same money. Unfortunately as much as I like it this is why I will never own a new One M8.

"None of these people are supplying roms so the only arguament I can see is the idea that emulators may encourage copyright infringement, but if you go far enough down that train of thought you'd end up banning web pages for the same reason."

You mean like Virgin Media, BT, Sky et al being required to block access to The Pirate Bay because it can be used to pirate illegal content? Unfortunately we're beyond that point already. I'm surprised you forgot about that happening really since it wasn't a small thing even if all it did was prevent very casual users from accessing the site.

Re: Nintendo

A quick look on the Play Store and Final Fantasy VI shows that it has over 100,000 downloads at £10.99 making £1,099,000 at the bare minimum 100,000 downloads. Take out Google's 30% and that's still a big chunk of change for what must be very little work. The game is already there they just have to get it working on the hardware which is pretty standard Qualcomm CPUs. That's just one title for Square Enix as well so you can easily imagine the money waiting to flow with Nintendo's titles.

Less handsets per year

Apple produced, until recently, one size iPhone. It allowed all third-party accessory sellers to maximise their profits without having to design more sizes. That has slightly changed now with the new iPhone and even the change to 4" prior to the new phones. Still, that's only two phones that they have to build accessories for right now.

Look at other manufacturers such as HTC who, despite saying they'd reduce their product numbers, still pump out way too many phones in a year. If they stuck with the original One lineup (X, S, V) but with better specifications they would have a device for each price point. Instead they have the One M8, the One mini 2 (really great name..) and a bunch of Desire (9 at last count) phones at various specs for sale. Throwing a bunch of crap and hoping something sticks is not a way to succeed when you don't have a large budget. Samsung can afford to do it, HTC and many others cannot.

Genuinely upset to see this

I saw the headline on the awful BBC site and my reaction was one of sorrow. He may not have been in a lot of memorable movies but I always remember seeing him in the Bond movies when I was quite young. He looked scary but had that very human side to him that meant he goofed up perhaps more than a standard henchman should. Who would dare fire him though? From all that I've read about him over the years (I wondered what he was doing some time back) he always seemed a very genuine and kind soul. RIP Richard Kiel.

EE on a roll

After their magical one fibre breaking data for the entire T-Mobile customer base this doesn't surprise me at all. Only they could run a network for the whole country with data relying on a single point of failure. EE I could sometimes get E as in Edge network in a pretty populated area and around the city centre here and a best speed test result of about 3Mbps down and 0.7Mbps up. I switched over to 3 this week and now see a normal speed of 10 - 15Mbps down and 5Mbps up.

Virgin, why are you letting them take so long? I assume that Virgin got money back or some sort of corporate apology. Why have you not passed it on to customers?

Nothing too newsworthy

It doesn't really matter what they reveal does it? Even if other phones have had the features or specifications for months, even years, it'll be hailed as popular because Apple are now doing it. The same frenzy that always happens will happen again and the renewed bitching between various camps will continue anew.

What do I expect? A new iPhone, new iPad and some form of wearable tech. I say new but they're essentially just updates of last years models with the phone possibly having a larger screen now that Jobs is gone.

Re: Wide selfie

Pathetic

As others have asked here I should be astonished that a massive outage can be caused by a single broken fibre cable. It should be punishable that they have a single source of failure that can affect all of their T-Mobile customers nationwide. As others have also said it can only be due to cost cutting that this has happened. That or gross negligence!

The thing that has annoyed me more than anything though is that I had to hunt down a WiFi signal while out then search for reports of problems just to discover that there was a problem. The main suspect until that point was my phone because I had full signal and 3G / H+ signal showing the whole time. For a massive communication company with so many customers they don't appear to know how to communicate with customers unless it's to demand money or to try and sell them new services.

Last things to mention. Until this post on El Reg I have seen no reports of this anywhere else except the Daily Fail of all places. The forum posts from EE were mentioning hourly updates which, naturally, didn't happen and of course there was no sign of a real apology or explanation for how they could screw up so badly. I don't know who will bother beyond me but I'm on a 30 day SIM only deal so this is the final nail in the coffin so to speak. I have no loyalty to a company that I've been with for the best part of 5 years who couldn't even match a SIM only price with 3 or offer the same allowances.

Re: Next HD2?

I'm sure a lot of the mod community has thought along similar lines since this was announced. From what I've read the hardware is identical with only the OS being different so I would imagine that a port or dual-boot option will happen in time. This just makes my ability to hold out on buying the new One M8 harder though..

Working for me

Unfortunately eBay working still doesn't make this seller respond to my concerns that they've grabbed the money and still not supplied what I paid for almost a week later despite listing it as "Express Delivery". I'm sure they will try to use this as an excuse if they do eventually respond though...

Re: Q from the US

@Steven Raith

"to the extent that my BT client, when getting ISOs etc, often reports as 10MB/sec transfer rate - that is, I'm not having any problems saturating the true bandwidth of the line. You just don't get that on consumer xDSL or cable"

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3672242208

Virgin Media 100Mbps connection and I'd count this as a slower period. It's very region dependent though with some older cable areas not as good as others. I've never had a problem with speed though and regularly get what is advertised although the upload has yet to be upgraded to 10Mb so it's hovering around 6Mb still.

Colours?

Will the notification light be similar to early Android where it could flash in a vast array of colours for different notifications or will it be the single, dual or tri-colour that most manufacturers seem to use now? This is the one thing that has really bothered me about nearly all Android manufacturers. The ability to customise and pick a notification colour allowed me glance at my phone and immediately know what was waiting. Are multi-colour LEDs that expensive? I'm counting 10+ as multi-colour here.

Ban driving

The only way to stop all accidents with vehicles is to ban driving completely. Yes it will take a lot longer for everything and prices will likely fly through the roof but won't somebody think of the children? Except pedos who do that too much already.

Best option

I've thought about this a lot because it always bothers me why some apps request permissions they do and unless you can figure it out your choices are accept and use it or refuse to install. Android started making developers include changelogs with each update and while that's been abused by some with poor logs such as "bug fixes and performance improvements" there are those that use it properly.

What I'd propose is similar to requiring changelogs. For every permission required the app has to state clearly why they need them. For camera apps to use camera is obvious but a torch app needing network access isn't so obvious until you see that it's ad supported. Then there are the really broad permissions like Facebore ask for that I'd never be ok with allowing.

Oh Japan..

Communications data

"Communications data is now used in more than 90 per cent of serious and organised crime investigations and is vital in bringing serious criminals to justice and protecting the most vulnerable among us."

I dare say that 100% of serious and organised crime uses the power of speech. BAN ALL SPEECH AND TEACHING OF IT! Actually perhaps it's better to allow it and just keep a record of all that speak either verbally or through sign language and any other means that exists or have not been thought of yet.

Service status updates

Why do companies in the communication business have such an inability to update a basic service status page? I can appreciate they won't change it if one or two people ring up with issues but when they know there is an issue it should be changed almost instantly.

As mentioned in the article it's infuriating to spend ages on hold to be told there are no problems in the area or worse, to find out there is a problem in the area. If one simple page could be updated it would save a lot of people wasting time on hold.

Cockney Rhyming Slang available?

I wonder if there would be one where you talk to it normally and it comes out like a market stall owner speaking in CRS. I also wonder what it'll make of a Birrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmingham or Liverpool accent. Almost every voice software I've used for the past 10 years has required me to train myself how to speak so the computer understands rather than the other way around and I don't have that strong an accent.

EULA

In general I tend to boil EULAs down to a simple sentence.

"Do you want to use <product>? Click Agree if you do, or Cancel."

There are a lot more specifics to it I know but ultimately that's what it comes down to in the end. Obviously if it's something important I'd try to skim it for glaring "You owe us your first born" points but that's my general way of dealing with EULAs.

Re: Website policy stupidity

@Nick Ryan The thing with set questions like those is that you are in charge of what you put for an answer. Memorable place? Potato. Memorable date? Pluto. I've similarly ignored answering truthfully to standard questions for a while to throw off anyone that might be capable of guessing the answer to security questions.

Turned off by default to start

How long before a future update turns this on by default until someone notices and we have another big, "Sorry it was a bug / mistake / believe us please and we won't do it again" story? I'm betting on about two months.

Fantastic value for money

The lack of front facing camera wouldn't bother me in the least. I distinctly remember being very happy that the T-Mobile G1 had no front facing camera and I don't use them anyway so it is no deal breaker to me. I'm sure I'll be in the minority but there are a lot of people that hate them being there and wouldn't mind a phone without them.

Astounding!

Twitter, having cut almost all third-party apps off with a stupid limit, are finally implementing some of the features that make them popular. Up next will be the ability to switch to a dark theme! I can't wait for them to catch up to three years ago.

Something does not quite add up

The project is said to have wasted £125m and they're saying this guy alone is responsible for £94m of that (coming back to that) so who is being blamed for the other £31m or does that not matter? I mean, £31m is clearly nothing when they're paying someone so much and letting him supposedly blow £94m but who was responsible for losing the rest and how have they been punished?

Back to the other point. If this one person alone is somehow responsible for £94m of wasted money then who put him in that position and why was he not made to give regular reports? Of course I don't believe one person is responsible for this just as much as I don't believe he's worth his annual salary but if we have to play that game then make it as awkward as possible for the BBC to hide their lies. What a laughing stock the BBC has become. Impartial news is not something I look to the BBC for and haven't for quite a while now.

Samsung flooding the channel

They release new versions of their tablets each year and almost nothing changes. How do they hope to sell anything when the 2012 Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 has practically identical specs to the 2013 Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 ? Hell, the 2012 tablet can be updated to a newer version officially than the 2013 model making it seem like they're moving backwards.

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=5422&idPhone2=4543

A comparison of the two to back up what I said above. The main differences I noted are slightly faster CPU, infrared port and the ability to use a larger SD card. The price they charge for them as well is ludicrious when the Nexus 7s (original and 2013 model) are better.

Never click links for banks etc in emails

I have received some emails from my bank that are legitimate and then I've also received a lot of phishing emails claiming to be my bank. I treat them both the same and check all URLs by hovering over with the mouse. If, after that, I'm still uncertain I'll manually enter the website address in my browser. If there isn't anything relating to the email when I login then I'd assume it's a phishing email and forward it to the bank's phishing email address.

Android app permissions

I like knowing what an app is requesting access to but what would be a lot more useful is if, along with update notes, each app had to list why they require all the permissions they ask for as well. It would go a long way to assuage the fears of those that aren't sure why a free calculator app needs internet access (ads most likely).